timholt

Tim Holt

The first Tim Holt comic appeared in Magazine Enterprises' anthology series A-1 Comics with issue #14 in 1948. It had a drawn cover with an upper left corner medallion containing a head shot of Tim. Of course, Tim's movie series had started many years earlier in 1940, and after wartime interruption (he won the Distinguished Flying Cross), the films resumed in 1947.A-1 Comics #17 and 19 also featured Tim now with photo covers (19 has a photo back cover, too). With the next issue, (#4 dated January/February 1949,) Tim's series became independent of the A-1 series. The photo covers continued as did the phrases 'Cowboy Star of the Movies' and 'Western Adventures' on each cover. Issue 5 and 6 also had photo back covers.
The photo front covers lasted through issue 16, returning one last time with issue 18. In issue 17, Tim was back to an upper left head shot and the rest of the cover presented a striking drawing of the new comic sensation, the Ghost Rider! Issue 19 had a drawn cover of Tim with the photo medallion again. The comic ended with a page showing a cowboy all in red, wearing a Durango Kid style mask. 'Coming next issue', it said. Sure enough, with issue 20, Tim's photo-medallion was back, along with a new tagline under the logo: 'Tim Holt As Red Mask'. Tim hadn't been replaced exactly, instead, he had become Red Mask, and so he stayed through the last issue #41 of April/May 1954. The one exception was issue 29 which featured a full-length black and white photo of Tim on Lightning against a red background with a drawing of Red Mask in a medallion for a change. With issue 42, the comic changed it's name to Red Mask, but now there was a photo medallion of someone (Tim?) in a red hat, wearing the new Lone Ranger-style red mask. The last issue was #54 dated Sept 1957.